At least five of Manny Pacquiao’s foreign billionaire friends have already committed to invest in the country should he win the presidency in 2022, the senator and boxing legend said Friday.
These businesses, he said, will employ all Filipino workers.
“They have different business concepts, but they can give us a lot of jobs. The good thing about my friends is, if they put their investments here, they want only Filipino workers involved,” Pacquiao said in Filipino.
These billionaires would also help strengthen the country’s small and medium enterprises and thus provide “millions of jobs” to the country, he added.
Pacquiao said these investments will finally help solve the problem of underemployment in the Philippines, where around 7 million workers have jobs but are still underpaid.
The sad plight of many Filipino workers, he said, can be blamed on the lack of opportunities and the ill effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“My goal is for the jobs to look for workers, not workers looking for jobs. When the time comes, our countrymen who are working abroad, who were forced to go abroad to survive, will want to come back home and have jobs waiting for them here,” the boxing champ said.
Pacquiao also said he will construct a hospital that will solely cater to current and former overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) and their families. “Kung hindi kaya nang libre, siguro, 50 or 70 percent discount,” he said.
The Pacquiao family is now preparing for the senator’s 43rd birthday on December 17, which they will celebrate at home in General Santos City.
Pacquiao’s birthday wish, he said, is for the country to have “new mornings,” including seeing a country with a “clean government” and “better and peaceful living” for ordinary Filipinos.
